Instructional Strategies for Reading Multisyllabic Words

As teachers when we hear the word phonics, we think about the process of teaching students to read using sound-letter correspondences. As students learn to understand the alphabetic principle, or the understanding that individual letters and combinations of letters represent the individual sounds in our language, there are several stages that students move through as they become proficient readers. Louisa Moats defines these stages as: Logographic, Novice or Early Alphabetic Reading, Mature Alphabetic Stage, and Orthographic Stage. You can learn more about these stages from the work of Ehri and McCormick as they define four distinct stages of word reading. In K-1, phonics instruction focuses heavily on moving students through the first three stages in which they are learning sound-symbol correspondences and patterns and how to put these patterns together in reading and writing. Many students who struggle with reading never move beyond the Alphabetic Stages and need explicit instruction in the Orthographic Stage in order to become proficient, independent readers. In the orthographic stage phonics instruction should focus on the six syllable types and morphology. The purpose of instruction for the six syllable types is to assist with pronunciation, whereas the purpose of morphological instruction is to assist with making meaning.

What are the Six Syllable Types?

            According to Timothy Rasinski, approximately 90% of multisyllabic words in English are derived from Latin, and much of the remaining 10% come primarily from Greek (1). Spelling patterns in Latin and Greek are fairly predictable, and knowledge of these patterns provides a clear link to pronunciation (Rasinski 16). Instruction in the six syllable types provides clues to how the vowel is pronounced due to this. The vowel is the nucleus of every syllable. When evaluating literacy programs be sure to see if direct instruction in the syllable types is included. Some programs define seven syllable types, but the majority teach six. These six types can be learned using the mnemonic CLOVER. C is for closed, L is for consonant le, O is for open, V is for vowel teams, E is for vowel consonant e, and R is for r-controlled. I have also seen some great examples of anchor charts that teachers create with their students as they introduce students to each type. Here is an example of one I created for my students. The description of the syllable types below is the order in which I typically teach them.

            Closed. Closed syllables are typically the first to be taught as they comprise approximately 50% of the syllables found in multisyllabic words. A closed syllable is defined as one vowel followed by one or more consonants. The vowel is short. Some examples of closed syllable words are cat, mitten, hamstring, rubbish, and infect.

            Open. Open syllables are the second most common type and are frequently taught after closed syllables. An open syllable is defined as a vowel not followed by a consonant and has a long vowel sound. Examples are she, a, emu, my, and solo.

            Vowel Consonant E. This syllable type is typically found in words of Anglo-Saxon origin, and while it does not represent a high percentage of multisyllabic words in our language overall, it is a frequently occurring pattern in the primary grades. This type is defined as one vowel followed by one consonant and then e. The first vowel is long, and the e is silent. Examples are plate, name, poke, type, and time.

            R Controlled. R-controlled syllables consist of a vowel followed by r. The vowel takes on the “Bossy R” sound. Examples are farm, port, fir, turn, and order.

            Consonant LE. Just as with the silent e spelling pattern, this syllable type is typically found in words of Anglo-Saxon origin and has a higher frequency of occurrence in primary grades reading material despite its rather small occurrence overall. Frequently, early learners spell words with this pattern as “ul”, but learning this pattern can help to correct this spelling error. This syllable type is defined as one consonant followed by le and makes the short u sound. This pattern is always found in a multisyllabic word and occurs at the end of the word. Examples are table, apple, jumble, and maple.

            Vowel Team. This can be the most difficult for students to master as they must have prior knowledge of vowel team spelling patterns. This type is defined as two vowels beside each other that make one sound, and the sound can be either short or long. Most programs include diphthong spelling patterns (ex. oi, oy, ow, aw) under vowel teams; however, some programs separate diphthongs into their own syllable type. Examples of vowel teams are steep, boat, read, boy, and coil.

Syllable Division Rules

            When learning about syllables, students must understand that every syllable must have a vowel sound. The vowel is essentially the nucleus that holds all words and syllables together. If a word has one vowel sound, then it is one syllable. If a word has two vowel sounds, it has two syllables and so on. As students begin to learn more than one syllable type, students need to understand a few common syllable division strategies. If there is more than one consonant between the vowels, divide between the consonants (ex. com-mon), unless the consonants are a digraph (ex. wash-er). If there are more than two consonants, then blends will stay together (ex. com-plete). If there is only one consonant between the vowels, try dividing before the consonant first (ex. ro-bot). If this does not produce a recognizable word, then try dividing after the consonant (ex. com-et). This is where the concept of flexing comes in for students. Sometimes when we divide a word one way, we don’t recognize the word, so we need to try dividing it a different way to see if that will produce a recognizable word. However, students must have that word in their lexicon already to recognize the word once pronounced correctly. When students don’t have prior knowledge of the word, allow them to attempt pronunciation using the syllable types, and then tell the student the word while briefly touching on its meaning. If students have knowledge of prefixes and suffixes, then teach students to divide immediately after the prefix and immediately before the suffix.

Instructional Strategies

            Before beginning direct instruction in the syllable types, students should have a fairly solid understanding of sound-symbol correspondences in one syllable words. There are many assessments that can be used to determine any gaps in phonics skills, but the one I like to use is the CORE Phonics Survey which can be found online through a quick Google search. This gives an idea of which phonics skills students have mastered and which skills may need additional instruction. In order to avoid confusing students, only teach one syllable type at a time, and allow students to master that type before beginning to combine types.

            When beginning to work with multisyllabic words, I walk students through a six step routine. Each day we spend no more than five minutes whole group walking through this routine with words that I have selected from texts the students will be working with as well as incorporating nonsense words. In small groups I spend the first five minutes on this routine as well with my struggling readers. When a new syllable type is introduced, we spend a week working on just learning to recognize examples and non-examples of the syllable in one syllable words through whole group practice and discussion and word sorts where students explain why a word is or is not an example of the syllable type and why. The second week we work on reviewing the syllable type as well as learning to read real and nonsense word examples. Then we spend one to two weeks working on breaking down multisyllabic words using the syllable types we have learned.

            As we work with multisyllabic words, I first have students find the vowels and mark them. Then we look at what is between the vowels, and decide where we need to divide the word based on some of the basic rules of syllable division. Students then mark the vowel sound based on how they have divided the word. Once the word has been marked up, we sound and scoop each syllable, and then read the word.  This is an example of an anchor chart that I use with my students to help them remember the steps.

If you are interested in learning more, The Texas Education Agency resource Texas Gateway has phenomenal video resources for teachers to learn more about each specific syllable type as well as incorporating morphology into word study instruction. For use in the classroom Becky Spence of This Reading Mama has free posters and bookmarks for teaching the syllable types on her blog post “6 Syllable Types Resource Pack” as well as a plethora of student center activities from the Florida Center for Reading Research found in their Reading Foundational Skills section. If you want to find lesson plans, I highly suggest the  West Virginia Reading First Explicit Phonics Lessons as the lessons are free, scripted, and include decodable stories for students to practice and apply what they learn. Dr. Sherrow also gives a great explanations of each syllable type and syllable division rules in this YouTube video, “The Six Syllable Types and Phoneme-Grapheme Mapping.” 

Works Cited

Ehri, Linnea, et al. “Phases of Word Learning: Implications for instruction with delayed and disabled readers.” Reading and Writing Quarterly: Overcoming Learning Difficulties. Vol. 14, no. 2, 1998,  pp. 339-361. https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/s3-euw1-ap-pe-ws4-cws-documents.ri-prod/9781138087279/12_Ehri_%26_McCormick%2C_Phases_of_Word_Learning_-_Implications_for_Instruction_with_Delayed_and_Disabled_Readers.pdf.

Hickman County Schools. “Phonics Skill 10 Multisyllable Words.” West Virginia Reading First Explicit Phonics Lessons, 1 August 2019, https://hickmank12.org/west-virginia-reading-first-explicit-phonics-lessons/.

Moats, Louisa. “Teaching Decoding.” American Educator/American Federation of Teachers, Spring/Summer 1998, pp. 1-9. https://www.aft.org/sites/default/files/periodicals/moats.pdf.

Rasinski, Timothy, et al. Greek and Latin Roots: Keys to Building Vocabulary. Shell Education, 2008, p. 16.

“Reading Foundational Skills Grades 3-5 Student Center Activities Aligned to the Common Core State Standards.” Florida Center for Reading Research, 1 August 2019, http://www.fcrr.org/studentactivities/3_5.htm.

“Six Syllable Types and Phoneme-Grapheme Mapping with Dr. Sherrow.” YouTube, uploaded by Breanna Sherrow, 19 Sep. 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ig6LbMru9Pg.

Spence, Becky. “6 Syllable Types Resource Pack.” This Reaading Mama, 1 August 2019, https://thisreadingmama.com/6-syllable-types-resource-pack/.

Texas Education Authority. “Six Syllable Types and Morphology.” Texas Gateway for Online Resources, 1 August 2019, https://www.texasgateway.org/resource/six-syllable-types-and-morphology.